Primary Care Clinicians’ Attitude, Knowledge, and Willingness to Address Climate Change in Shared Decision-Making

Background: Climate change poses a threat to the health of people worldwide. Little is known about the awareness of primary care clinicians toward climate change and if they are open and prepared to address climate change issues with their patients. As pharmaceuticals are the main source of carbon emissions in primary care, avoiding the prescription of particular climate-harmful medications is a meaningful contribution to the reduction of greenhouse gases.

Methods: This is a cross-sectional questionnaire survey among primary care clinicians in West Michigan conducted in November 2022.

Results: One hundred three primary care clinicians responded (response rate 22.5%). Nearly 1/3 (29.1%) were classified as climate change unaware clinicians who perceived that global warming is not happening, or expressed that it is happening but not caused by human activities or is affecting the weather. In a theoretical scenario on a prescription of a new drug, clinicians tended to prescribe the less harmful drug without discussing options with patients. Although 75.5% of clinicians agreed that climate change aspects have its place in shared decision-making, 76.6% of clinicians expressed a lack of knowledge to advise patients in this regard. In addition, 60.3% of clinicians feared that raising climate change issues in consultations may adversely affect the relationship with the patient.

Discussion: Although many primary care clinicians are open to addressing climate change in their working environment and with their patients, they lack knowledge and confidence to do so. In contrast, the majority of the US population is willing to do more to mitigate climate change. Although curricula on climate change topics are increasingly implemented in student education, programs to educate mid- and late-career clinicians are lacking.